Wasted a part of a sunny Saturday afternoon last weekend sitting through this season’s mega-disaster movie, “2012.” And no, the mega-disaster featured therein doesn’t have anything to do with the re-election of President Barack Obama, but with the end of the world. Not that I want to spoil the plot for you, but I particularly… Continue Reading Understanding true meaning of the fictional apocalypse

During Monday’s “budget markup session,” City Council members couldn’t stop using three apparently interchangeable phrases. They promised to concentrate upon providing “essential city services,” “vital city functions” and “core city services.” In the view of every one of our nine elected officials, public safety comes first. And after public safety comes yet more public safety,… Continue Reading Now’s the time to hunker down and join in the fight

Last week, we featured a feel-good look at the nine best things ever to happen to our sometimes benighted community. This week: a sourly opinionated account of the seven worst events in our city’s checkered history. Is the field of Armageddon located right here in Colorado Springs? Have we, like Job, been sorely tested by… Continue Reading Best of the worst: The Springs’ not-so-magnificent seven

Stuff happens, as the old saying goes (bowdlerized for this family friendly publication). We in the media tend to concentrate on the bad stuff, because that’s news. As a veteran reporter once put it, “If I go to a neighborhood, and 40 houses aren’t burning to the ground, my editor doesn’t care. Show me the… Continue Reading Completely unscientific listing of area’s success stories

The ballots are in the mail — but the check isn’t. Less than two weeks from today, we’ll know whether Colorado Springs voters have approved a cumulative 10 mill increase in city property taxes. For supporters of issue 2C, the prospects are not encouraging. Private polling shows that Springs residents regard the proposal with skepticism.… Continue Reading Looking back to see where we might be able to go

Say you’re a pilot. You’re not flying the plane — you’re sitting in the back of the bus, row 27, seat E, squeezed between oversized fliers. You’re mad at the airline, at the airline industry and at the overpaid incompetents who have run the company into the ground. You’re mad that your once amply funded… Continue Reading Not the time to stand on principle, and crash and burn

We’ve written a lot about the health care system — how it’s funded, administered and structured; how it becomes more expensive every year; and how unsustainable it might be. We’ve opined, reported and analyzed, but like any complex system it’s hard to understand. You can draw upon your own experience, but few of us would… Continue Reading A health care analogy that just about anyone should understand

Is there a better way of looking at the country than through the centuries-old lenses that have guided politicians for more than 200 years — or, in Colorado’s case, since 1876? Ours is a nation of 50 states. Remember those maps that used to hang in fourth-grade classrooms? Remember memorizing, or trying to remember, the… Continue Reading Could we really survive with a stateless union?

The “great man” theory of history has few adherents nowadays, except perhaps among men who think they qualify as “great men.” But forgetting for the moment uber-deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, who once said, “Thinking is what we already know that we have not yet begun,” let us now praise two not-so-famous men. Each had long rich… Continue Reading We have daily reminders of the ‘best and the brightest’